


Wizard of OZ

by sinofwriting



Category: Aaron Tveit - Fandom, Broadway RPF
Genre: F/M, Homophobia, Transphobia, deadnaming, trans reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-07 19:03:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19475401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinofwriting/pseuds/sinofwriting
Summary: After a month of being away, Aaron wasn't expecting to get a new neighbor.





	Wizard of OZ

Y/N glared at the door, hoping that who ever was knocking could feel it. She had hoped to get unpacked completely in one day, so she could start her new job with barely any stress, but it didn’t seem that was going to happen. 

Clambering to her feet, she winced when her knees popped. Walking over to her front door, she unlocks it before opening it. 

The man in front of her smiles at her, “the landlord told me I had a new neighbor.” He nods his head towards the door across the hall. “Just wanted to say hi. Introduce myself.”  
She nods, wiping her hands on her jeans, before extending her right. “My names, Y/N.”  
He’s quick to shake her hand, “Aaron. When did you move in?” He laughs seeing her confused expression, “sorry, I’ve been out of town for the past month, work.” He explains, with a shrug.  
She nods, shifting to lean against the doorframe when she sees his shoulders drop, tension leaving him. “I moved in today.”  
Aaron nods, the boxes he’s able to see slightly making sense and despite being tired and still smelling like an airport, he offers anyway. “Do you need help with anything?”  
She shakes her head, “no, thank you though. The movers put everything where I wanted. It’s just a matter of unpacking all the small stuff.”  
He nods, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Well, I’m a few steps away if you do need help with anything.”  
She watches him walk into his apartment, before going back inside her own and shutting the door. 

Two weeks later, Aaron watches with a concerned face, as he sees Y/N struggling to get her door open, as someone talks her ear off through the phone. The conversation can’t be good, considering that she keeps wincing every few seconds and letting out light sighs.

Moving from his doorway, he smiles at her, before taking her keys, and unlocking the door for her. Giving her back her keys, he pushes the door open for her. Expecting just a small smile from her, he’s surprised when she motions for him to come in with her. 

Closing the door behind them, he admires the apartment, that admittedly had the exact same layout as his. His eyes taken in the few photos on display, noticing that she’s in nearly every single one. He looks toward Y/N when he finally hears her speak. 

“Look, Mom, I have to go.” And before her mom can saying else, she ends the call with a sigh. She looks at Aaron with a sheepish smile. “Sorry about that.”  
“It’s okay.” He takes another look at the apartment, a grin growing on his face when he sees Les Miserables is sitting on her kitchen counter. “Fan?” He asks, pointing towards the book.  
She nods, “yeah. I’ve probably read that thing over a hundred times.”  
“It’s a good book.”  
He rocks on his heels, trying to contain his excitement. “Ever gotten to see the musical?”  
Y/N shakes her head, “Never had time. Nearly saw the movie that came out a few years ago.”  
He deflates at her answer, as much as he loved the book, he couldn’t help but love the musical more. He nearly breathed a sigh of relief when she said she had never seen the movie. “Maybe you’ll get to see it one day.”  
“Maybe,” she hums, taking off her jacket and hanging it over the back of a chair. “Would you like something to drink? I have beer.” She offers.  
He considers it for a moment, he didn’t have rehearsal the next day and a beer or two wouldn’t hurt him with how he was going. “Sure, what is it?” Aaron asks, as she pulls two out of her fridge. A laugh escapes him when she tells him, before handing over one of the bottles. Examining the bottle, he laughs again seeing that’s what they really called it. “Any good?”  
“I like it enough, I prefer Guinness though.” 

Taking a sip, he’s pleasantly surprised by the flavor that touches his lips then tongue.  
Y/N taps her fingers against the bottle, thinking about her favorite book. “Is it a good musical?” She asks, the man standing in her apartment seeming to have an opinion on it.  
He nods, “I liked it enough, it also depends on what production you go to though.”  
“Well, I hope it would be a good one, since it would be my first musical.”  
He coughs at that, the beer in his mouth, just barely being swallowed. “You’ve never been to a musical?”  
“Not anything since high school and that was enough to turn me off on the idea.” She tells him, a shudder going through her as she remembers how everyone was forced to sit and watch the disaster of a show the school put on.  
“What did they do?”  
“Wizard of OZ.”  
A groan leaves him, making her laugh. “Okay, I could maybe see why. My high school did that one too, and I’ll admit it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world.”  
She takes another drink of her beer, “Did yours involve a weird orginal number that involved a safe sex talk that was horribly disguised by something else?”  
He puts his hands in the air, beer on the counter. “I think you win and I’d like to apologize on behalf of the theatre community for that.” He tries to keep a straight face, but his lips keep twitching upward.  
She rolls her eyes with a laugh, but nods. “Apology accepted.”  
It’s quiet for a few seconds, before he looks at her with a fake serious expression, eyes filled with mirth. “So, do you remember how the song went?” He laughs when she throws her bottle cap at him, barely managing to catch it. 

This continues for a month, every night before his off day, he goes to Y/N’s sometimes they drink a beer or two, others they get some takeout. For the amount of time their spending together, they don’t actually know much about each other. Always keeping things just a tiny bit personal, never develing into anything past highschool and never talking about family. 

In that month, Y/N noticed that Aaron had wandering eyes. He liked to examine everything, he was nice enough to always stay by the kitchen counters, sitting there with her or on the couch depending on the night. But with a laugh, she nods towards the shelf full of picture frames. “You can look. I’ll answer any questions about them too.” She adds.  
It barely takes him a second to stand up and another to walk over to them. He looks at all of them, with curious eyes. His eyes settle on one of the few that don’t include Y/N. “Who are these two?” He asks, picking up the picture frame, where an older woman in a wheelchair and boy probably in his last year of high school stand outside in an amazing garden.  
She doesn’t have to stand up, to know which picture he’s talking about. She could tell by the frame. Setting her beer down, she rubs her palms against her jeans, before walking over to him. She points at the woman, “That’s my grandma, a few weeks before she passed. This is the only photo I have of the two of us.” She doesn’t see the way Aaron looks at her when she tells him, to focused on looking at the only picture she could stand to see of herself before transitioning.  
“I’m sorry.” He tells her, gently setting the photo down. “I’m sure she would be happy to see who you are today.”  
Y/N smiles at him, “I know she is. She was the first person I told. And when my mom threw me out, she took care of me. Helped me get money to transition and everything. I was just about to start the transition when she passed.”  
He doesn’t say sorry again, he didn’t need to. And she seemed happy to talk about her grandma with someone. 

“I bet you were a lot like her.” He mumbles, when they sit on the couch again.  
She laughs, “Through and through. I always wanted to be her when I grew up and I think I got a lot of her personality.”  
“Did she also throw beer caps at her friends everytime she sees them?” Aaron jokes.  
“Nah, she did throw things though if she was pissed off at you. Broke a window once.”  
He makes a face at that, “I wouldn’t of wanted to piss her off.”  
“You would of been fine if you had, she liked pretty boys.” Y/N says, wiggling her eyebrows at the end, with a laugh.  
He nudges her, laughing. “Shut up.” 

A week later and her first time in Aaron’s apartment, a cookie in hand, she sighs. “Do you ever hate your job?”  
He stops what he was doing, bouncing the question around for a few seconds. “No, sometimes I’m tired of it, but that’s only because I’m exhausted.”  
She hums, “Sounds nice. I would rather be tired of it then hate it.”  
“Do you not like what you’re doing?”  
She shakes her head, “I do, it’s just there are times where I can’t think of why I’m doing it and then a week later I remember why.”  
He nods, before going back to flipping through the take out menus. “I get like that sometimes when I get a role and if I feel like I’m stuck because a director won’t give me what I need.” He waits with bated breath for her to freak out, demand to know what’s he been, what he does exactly, but he doesn’t get any of that.  
“I’m getting a bottle of wine from mine, since you have none. White or red?” She asks, standing up, from where she had been lounging on the couch.  
His reply comes out in broken fragments, and he watches her leave the apartment for a short minute in awe. 

Biting at his bottom lip, a few hours later, he curses. “Please pick up, please pick up.” He fights the urge to scream out a yes, when they pick up.  
“Hello?”  
“Eddie, how you doing?”  
The voice on the other line perks up, “Aaron! I’m doing good, home at the moment. What about you? Still in rehearsals?”  
“Yeah, I am. And I’m doing good, just have a quick question for you.” His voice is shaky, Eddie can hear it over the phone.  
“Some question if you stayed up to ask me it.”  
“Yeah.” Aaron breathes, squeezing his eyes shut for a few seconds, before opening them again. “How did you,” He clears his throat, “how did you know that you loved Hannah?”  
It’s silent on the other side for a moment. “I just knew, I think I knew a month after meeting her. She was just brilliant. Did you meet someone?”  
“I think I found my Cosette.” Aaron poorly jokes, hoping the bad joke will distract his friend, so he can freak out on his own.  
“More like your patria, if we’re going to go there.” Eddie mutters, before speaking louder. “Do you want to talk about it or do you want me to leave it alone?”  
He’s silent, unsure of what he wants. Eddie stays quiet, not wanting to pressure his friend into giving him an answer. “I want to talk about it.” He tells him, after taking a deep breath.

“She moved in over a month ago to my apartment building, and god, she’s stunning. We’ve been hanging out over at hers once a week, and tonight she was over at mine and I knew I liked her. But, I told her I acted, and she didn’t even blink or pause, didn’t even nod.” He runs his free hand through his hair, “she just asked me white or red for wine since I had none at mine.” He continues to ramble for a few more minutes, his mouth barely being able to keep up with his brain, as he describes Y/N. 

From the way her eyes light up when she gets excited to the way her brow furrows when she hears something that she doesn’t like. He tells Eddie every last detail. When he finishes, his throat feels dry and he has to thank everything that he doesn’t have rehearsals until the next day.

“You going to tell her?”  
Aaron hesitates, “maybe. I don’t know.”  
Eddie only hums, having felt this way when he met this wife. “Just think about it. Remember that I’m always here to talk if you need it.”  
He nods, “Yeah, of course. Thank you.” 

The call only lasts a minute more, before Aaron throws his phone on the couch and collapses in the chair beside it. Looking at the ceiling, his lips move forming words, but they never enter the air. With a sigh, he gets up from the chair, grabbing his phone and a water, he rushes out of the apartment. 

Y/N doesn’t see him for the next two weeks, not even glimpse. She almost thinks that maybe something happened to him, but shakes her head, when she sees a new preview for the musical he talked about being in. She was glad in the long run that he was busy rehearsing, since her mom had decided to visit on the third week of not seeing Aaron.

Wincing when her mom calls her Jake for what seems to be the hundredth time, she misses Aaron watching her with concern from his doorway. A frown takes over his features, when he hears the woman standing with Y/N, say the name Jake. It’s only when she responds to the name, that it clicks in his head. 

Stepping into the hallway, he closes his door behind him. He crosses over to the other side of the hallway, in a few steps. Taking her keys from her trembling hands, he opens the door for her. She squeezes his hand for a second, a silent thank you, that she doesn’t want to say out loud. He nods, sparing a glance at the woman who’s watching them interact with narrowed eyes. 

“Can I talk to you for a second?” He asks.  
The woman goes to interrupt, but Y/N answers before she can. “Yeah, I have a minute.” She turns around, “I’ll just be a minute.”  
“I didn’t come here to not spend time with you Jake.”  
“Please, it will only take a minute.”  
She nods, with a huff before disappearing into Y/N’s apartment. 

Aaron tilts his head towards his place, silently asking if they can talk there. She hesitates, but nods. “Everything okay?” Y/N asks, after he closes the door behind her.  
“I think I should be asking you that, Y/N.” He doesn’t fail to notice the relief on her face, when he uses her actual name.  
She nods, “I’m fine, my mom decided to visit is all.”  
“Does she do that often?”  
She sends him a fake smile, “Only when she wants to remind me that I’m a freak of nature.”  
“You aren’t.” He says quietly, not wanting to push, but also wanting her to know that he didn’t think any different of her.  
She nods with a sigh, “I know. She just refuses to accept that I’m a girl and I like guys. I don’t know what she finds worse sometimes.” 

“Can I hug you?” He asks after watching her for a few seconds, and not knowing what else to say.  
She nods, “I could use a hug.”  
He quickly wrapped his arms around her, a hand gently guiding her head to rest against his chest. The other moving in circles on her back. His grip tightening when she goes from having her arms loosely around him, to both her hands gripping his shirt tight. Body slightly shaking, as she gets her first hug from someone who meant something to her in years.


End file.
